Interlocking fasteners for building materials



United States Patent O INTERLOCKING FASTENERS FOR BUILDlNG MATERIALS 4 Benne C. Johns, Pensacola, Fla.

Application October 25, 1955, Serial No. 542,607

3 Claims. (Cl. 20-8) The present invention relates to readily connectable devices which enable the user thereof to quickly assemble and securely fasten marginally abutting coplanar building panels, floor boards, and the like together; and has reference, in particular, to novelly constructed fasteners aligned and cooperating in pars, said fasteners being individually constructed to be tacked or nailed to their respective boards and functioning, when used in conjunction with the conventional tongue and groove flooring, to connect and hold the cooperating boards in floorforming relationship in a manner to obviate the necessity of driving nails through the boards into underlying subflooring, as is customarily done.

An object of this invention is to successfully cope with everyday floor laying and similar building problems. To this end, the instant concept involves the adaptation and use of special fasteners which may be nailed or otherwise Secured transversely across the bottom surfaces of the floor boards. When properly lined up, the adjacent fasteners, being provided with coacting means, may be readily placed end-to-end, interlocked and thus joined securely together, making it possible to satisfactorily lay a floor directly over a wooden subfloor, concrete foundation or an equivalent structure.

To the end that the new and improved results will be carried out and into efect properly, appreciably novel fasteners are utilized. Structurally, the fasteners are duplicates one of the other, and they are therefore suitably designed and standardized so that cooperating end portions of adjacent pairs of fasteners may be lined up and adequately interlocked with the complete link of fasteners functioning as a sort of a board assembling and tying stn'nger.

In carrying out a preferred embodiment of the invention, sheet metal of a suitable kind and strength is stamped out or otherwise constructed and the finished fastener may be said to be characterized by a tapering rigid shank having a pointed leading end with serrated embedding and retaining shoulders, the opposite end having a head with L-shaped positioning and retaining hooks, and the intermediate portion of the headed end having a nailable outstanding extension which is concavo-convex and is provided with a nailhole and/or otherwise constructed to provide a piloting guide for the next adjacent fastener.

Other objects, features and advantages will become more readily apparent from the following description and the accompanying sheet of drawings.

In the drawings, wherein like numerals are employed to designate like parts throughout the views:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a floor board fastener constructed in accordance with the invention;

Figure 2 is also a perspective view and its purpose is to illustrate that the fasteners are duplicated and are used in pairs" and are thus designed to be linked" together in interlocking relationship;

Figure 3 is a fragmentary bottom plan showing several 2,8l7,l25 Fatented Dec. 24, 1957 floor boards abutting each other and with several of the fasteners lined up and interlocked; and

Figure 4 is a view in section, also fragmentarily shown, and taken approximately on the plane of the line 4-4 of Figure 3.

It will be clear from Figures 3 and 4 that the principal object of the invention is to make it possible to lay ordinary tongue and groove flooring or floor boards, strip members, panels, planks or the like on a wooden, concrete or an equivalent foundation. The concrete base (not shown) or wooden foundation (subfloor) is denoted at A in Figure 4, while the tongue and groove floor boards are denoted by the reference characters B. i In any event, each floor board has the customary channel or groove C along one lengthwise edge to receive the cooperating tongue D. The foundation and the .floorfiboards are conventional. The inventi'on has to do with the fasteners, and for convenience, two of the fasteners in Figure 3 are denoted and differentiated by the numerals 6 and 8. Actually, however, all of the fasteners are the same in Construction, and a description of one should sufiice for all. To this end, the fastener is made from rigid sheet metal or equivalent material. The aforementioned flat faced gradually tapering shank is denoted at 10, and this may, if desired, be provided intermediate its ends with a nailhole 12 whereby the fastener may be nailed (Fig. 3) in a starting position. This is necessary where the first fastener is placed on the first floor board and assists one in getting started, in an obvious manner. In any event, the narrow end of the shank is transversely serrated and the sharp edged tootblike serrations are denoted at 14. The serrations define longitudinally spaced transverse embedding retaining teeth or shoulders. It is within the purview of the invention to use milled surface embossments, grooves or other equivalent mechanical expedients which are capable of performing as anchoring and retaining elements. The leading end at the right in Figure 2 is pointed at 16, and serves to pilot the shank of one fastener into engaging relationship with the next adjacent and cooperating fastener. At the left hand end in Figure 2, the widened body porton is actually fashioned into what may be Conveniently designated here as a head 18. The head has L-shaped members formed thereon, each of which includes a lateral bend 22 at right angles to the head and a second bend 24 which parallels the head and has a terminal pointed portion 26. These several Components 22, 24 and 26 form what may be designated as a pointed hook, and there are two of these hooks and they are spaced apart and properly interrelated and lined up so that they may be fitted into the usual groove in the floor board in the manner shown at the left in Figure 4. Extending beyond the L-shaped hooks, there is a concavo-convex extension 28 which is thus dished or otherwise channeled with the channeled portion 29 formed With a nailhole 30 and sharpened knife-like embedding flanges 32.

It will be obvous that the pointed serrated shank end is proportioned and constructed so that the cooperating hooks and piloting guide or extension 28 properly line up with and, in fact, cooperate with each other to provide the interlocking joint or connection depicted in Figure 3. Also, the serrations embed themselves in the Wood fibres and strengthens the effectiveness of the overlapped portons of the cooperating "pairs" of fasteners.

The foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the invention. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the invention to the exact Construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly, all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the invention as claimed,

What is claimed as new is as follows:

1. A fastener for attachment to the underside of a floor board, said fastener being of an over-all length greater than the transverse width of the floor board with which is it applicable when in use and, in fact, being of a length that 'leading and trailing end portions thereof project beyond cooperating longitudinal edge portions of the floor board, said fastener being of 'one-piece construction and rgid and having a body portion including a tapering rigid shank with a pointed leading end which serves in part to pilot said fastener into its intended floor board retaining position, the trailing end of said body portion having a centralized outstanding extension which is concavo-convex in cross-section for reception of a coopera'ting leading end of the companion fastener which is a duplicate of the first named fastene', one brcad surface of said shank, the surface which is next to and parallels the undeflsi de of said floor board, being transversely sei-rated to provide longitudinally spaced ribs, said ribs beingadapted to embed themselves in said underside of the floor board which is next to and adapted to be connected with the first named floor board, and means at the juncture of said body portion and centralized member adapted to be driven into an edge portion of the floor board and to provide a positive mechanical connection between said fastener and the first named floor board.

2. As a new article of manufacture, a fastener which is firmly connectible with a floor board in a manner that it extends transversely across the underneath side of the floor board with leading and trailing end portions projecting beyond the tongue and groove lengthwise edge portions of the floor board, said fastener being of onepiece rigid Construction and comprising a 'body provided with a shank which is tapered and formed with a rigid pointed leading end, said shank having inward and outward surfaces, the inward surface adjacent to and parallel with the underneath surface of said floor board being provided with longitudinally spaced transverse anti-Slipping ribs, said body having a head at the opposite trailing end, said head being formed with a central outstand ing extension, said head being provided at the juncture of the extension and itself with upstanding L-shaped hooks which are adatped to be embedded in and con nected with the grooved longitudinal edge of the stated floor board, said hooks therefore having bill portions which are parallel to the head and said bill portions being pointed to be driven into the floor board.

3. The structure defincd in claim 2 and wherein said extension has a nail hole therethrough and is concavoeonvex in transverse section and the lengthwisc edges providing flanges and the lengthwise edges of said flanges being sharpened to assume knife-like form.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 598,920 Poster Feb. 15, 1898 1,898,364 Gynn Feb. 21, 1933 2,429,113 Warner Oct. 14, 1947 2,740,505 Flora Apr. 3, 1956 FOREIGN PATENTS 65,320 Norway Sept. 9, 1940 

